While there
has been little interest in the possible trip to the beautiful
village of Elva in Italy, I thought it worthwhile including details
of another community called Elva, this time in Estonia.

Okay, I can
see you reaching for the atlas, but I can tell you this little town is
south of Finland and east of Sweden - and once again is lovely.

Here's some
photos and information from Mart Raudsaar. Click on any of the photos for
a larger image.

The
main facts about Elva:

Elva
is a city situated in South-Estonia, in the South-Western part of Tartu
county. It takes approximately three hours by car to drive to nearest
international airport Ülemiste, just before the capital Tallinn. It takes
approximately twenty minutes to drive to Tartu, what is the second Estonian
city by population, and an old university town (established in 1632 by
Gustav II Adolf) and the most eastern city belonging to the Hansaetic
League. The city is passed by one of the most important Estonian roads,
so-called Via Hansaetica which connects Berlin and St. Petersburg.

The
northern part is covered by woody growth. The southern part appears to
be more smooth woody sandy plain, covered mainly by pine-trees (approximately
80 years old).

Summa summarum forest takes 36% of total amount of city's
soil, not to mention every single tree growing among the buildings.
Therefore Elva is also known as "pinetown". One such single but powerful
tree is the Arbi pine-tree what is a symbol of town and has been portrayed
on the coat of arms.

The coat of arms symbolizes the fresh air and water resources as well
we have.

There
are six main lakes on the city's territory and the Elva river penetrating
the settlement. The biggest lake is Verevi (12,6 hectares) and Arbi (5,5
hectares). The first has nice sandy beach which has been just reconstructed
and will be reopened in 15th of May 1999. The average altitude from the
sea level is 55 metres.

Brief history:

The settlement was established in 1889 as co-product
of the opening of the railway junction between Riga and Tartu. The
railway station is one of the earliest buildings in town and this
is a good example of architecture used in those early days.

The settlement expanded her borders rapidly as famous
summer resourt and was vacation destination for 1700 visitors in 1935.
Many of them came form Scandinavia, being attracted by the significant
name "Elva" maybe. "Elva" means "eleven" in Swedish and "a river"
in Norwegian.

In 1938 the town got city rights and enjoys exactly
the same status as our capital and other cities nowadays. In 1988
there were huge selebrations because of 100 year-anniversary of settlement
and 50 year-anniversary of city. In that autumn the city stone was
opened by the oldest citizen Juhan Jans.

That year was the year of so-called singing revolution,
the liberation movement could begin and our national flags blue-black-white
were carried out first time after the Soviet occupation. The stone
is also a memorial for victims of occupation, especially of those
who were deported to Siberia in 1941 and 1949. The Soviet occupation
was a great repulse indeed, and the present city government tries
re-establish the image of famous summer resort.

The church was built in 1920 and has vitreous altarpiece,
unique in the whole Estonia. The altarpiece shows the event of the
Epiphany and was created by Dolores Hoffmann in 1995.

Main industrial enterprise:

"Elvex",
Estonian-Swedish joint venture, produces front and rear glass for cars
and this is definitely one of the biggest factories in the region by amount
of production.